Papers by José Pablo Prado Córdova
Agricultura, Sociedad y Desarrollo
El objetivo de esta investigación fue conocer las características socioeconómicas de las familias... more El objetivo de esta investigación fue conocer las características socioeconómicas de las familias y el uso del bosque en tres comunidades rurales del municipio de Cintalapa Chiapas, México. Se entrevistaron a 80 ejidatarios jefes de familia que tienen posesión de la tierra. Se encontró que 57.1% de los ejidatarios son agricultores y 30% ganaderos. Los ingresos familiares semanales son de $780.60 y 75% se considera pobre. De los ejidatarios de Venustiano Carranza 83% tienen problemas de abastecimiento de alimentos; Francisco I. Madero 51.4% y Triunfo de madero 51.5%. Todas las familias presentan hacinamiento en sus hogares. El cultivo principal es el maíz con rendimientos de 2.5 t/ha y la actividad ganadera más importante es la crianza de bovinos con un promedio de 20 cabezas de ganado por productor. Las especies con mayor valor de Índice de Importancia Cultural son las que se utilizan en la actividad ganadera. la totalidad de los traspatios contienen especies que complementan el co...
Capital & Class, Jun 12, 2020
Nature-conservation practices in the Global South are fraught with uncertainty due to fragile env... more Nature-conservation practices in the Global South are fraught with uncertainty due to fragile environmental governance and conflict stemming from their subaltern position in global capitalism, given the tension between human needs and habitat integrity. This article hinges on a recent effort spear-headed by the Centre of Conservation Studies at University of San Carlos in Guatemala, to discuss how a counterhegemonic narrative offers fertile grounds for a decolonized reading of the metabolic rift. I use my notes from eight workshops held in 2018 as the empirical body for a discourse analysis where the emerging categories have been singled out and problematized in the light of ethnoecological theory and David Harvey's moments for the transition towards a post-Capitalist society visà-vis a prevailing environmental regime characterized by its verticality, lack of scientific substantiation, and proclivity to privilege exchange value at the expense of widening the metabolic rift. This regime arguably spawns several ecological rifts, namely the following: (1) between conventional scientific parlance and traditional ecological knowledge; (2) between utility-inspired natural resource management and local land husbandry practices; and (3) between nature as a reservoir of resources and nature as the sustenance for life. In addition, I present a case study where local advocacy in a peripheral community managed to bring
Capital & Class, Jun 17, 2020
The COVID-19 crisis began after this forum was written. Yet, it has highlighted, in an extreme wa... more The COVID-19 crisis began after this forum was written. Yet, it has highlighted, in an extreme way, how humans, nature and global capitalism are each deeply interconnected. This speaks to an ongoing debate within radical environmental politics, which focuses on the question of nature, and the degree to which humans are separate from, and/or part of the natural world. Much of this debate is reflected in the disagreement between John Bellamy Foster and Jason Moore, over the way and the extent to which we can conceptualise capitalism as a process that systematically produces ecological destruction (see especially Foster 2016; Moore 2017). This debate raises important questions regarding the way in which Marxism (including Green, or eco-Marxism) is susceptible to charges of Euro-centrism. The aim of this forum is to contribute to this debate, providing opportunities through which to develop and clarify what a decolonised eco-Marxism might look like. A key aspect in the debate between Foster and Moore is over the question of how to conceptualise the effect of capitalism upon, or in, nature. For Foster, who has perhaps done most to develop a Marxist approach to climate change, especially through a
desafíos contemporáneos de esta iniciativa. Estos desafíos están asociados a las principales cont... more desafíos contemporáneos de esta iniciativa. Estos desafíos están asociados a las principales contradicciones identificadas por los autores entre los sustratos ideológicos que subyacen a las lógicas y prácticas conservacionistas nacionales. Cada una de estas contradicciones es analizada a la luz de su génesis teórica, para señalar los principales retos que se derivan de la disputa ideológica por la conservación de la diversidad biológica en esta región del país. El contraste entre las diversas lógicas conservacionistas permite, finalmente, la formulación de unas conclusiones inspiradas en un intento de informar el debate nacional a propósito de la importancia de privilegiar unos esfuerzos conservacionistas coherentes con la realidad social y ecológica de los territorios rurales guatemaltecos. 154 Universidad rafael landívar vicerrectoría de investigación y Proyección
Se estudió la composición química (pH, elementos mayores, menores, %S.B., CIC, %M.O. y N.T.), de ... more Se estudió la composición química (pH, elementos mayores, menores, %S.B., CIC, %M.O. y N.T.), de los suelos de áreas abiertas y bosque de abeto (Abies guatemalensis Rehder) en un gradiente sucesional. Estos resultados se relacionaron con la vegetación a través de análisis de correlación y análisis Canónico de Correspondencias. El objetivo fue mostrar las relaciones presentes entre vegetación y composición química del suelo a través de la sucesión ecológica en áreas de clima frío. Los resultados indican que la vegetación está compuesta de 82 especies de las cuales 20 son del estrato herbáceo inferior, 34 del estrato herbáceo superior, 21 arbustos y siete árboles. Las características químicas del suelo a través de los cinco estadios sucesionales tienen pocas diferencias significativas y no muestran una tendencia clara al aumento de acuerdo con el grado de desarrollo del ecosistema. Se presenta un bajo porcentaje de correlaciones entre la parte vegetal y características químicas del suelo. El análisis canónico de correspondencias muestra que las características que más correlacionan con los sitios a través de la vegetación son el K, CIC y %SB y. Se puede concluir que el abordaje del estudio de la composición química de suelos, en áreas de sucesión ecológica es complejo, en especial en regiones de altitud donde, además de otros factores, la temperatura y la humedad juegan un papel importante en la dinámica suelovegetación. Palabras clave: Sucesión ecológica, propiedades químicas del suelo, Abies guatemalensis Rehder, correlación suelovegetación, análisis Canónico de Correspondencias.
Frontiers in Human Dynamics
Authoritarian and populist regimes have used the coronavirus pandemic as another excuse to furthe... more Authoritarian and populist regimes have used the coronavirus pandemic as another excuse to further push back on democracy. Through the lens of boundary-making, we discuss power processes in pandemic politics of three countries whose governments and power constellations rely on authoritarian and/or populist politics (Hungary, Nicaragua, and Guatemala). Our aim is to envision the conceptual and practical possibilities for breaking up the unhealthy love relationship amid pandemic politics, authoritarianism, and populism, and for ultimately dismantling all three. On the basis of secondary data, personal communications, and our lived experiences, we analyze pandemic politics in authoritarian and populist contexts, exploring their ambiguous and co-constitutive effects through three apparent contradictions. First, we discuss control, or the ways in which the framing of the pandemic by authoritarian and populist regimes as an emergency, a quasi-war situation, or an excuse for political oppo...
Revista Eutopía, Jun 1, 2017
desafíos contemporáneos de esta iniciativa. Estos desafíos están asociados a las principales cont... more desafíos contemporáneos de esta iniciativa. Estos desafíos están asociados a las principales contradicciones identificadas por los autores entre los sustratos ideológicos que subyacen a las lógicas y prácticas conservacionistas nacionales. Cada una de estas contradicciones es analizada a la luz de su génesis teórica, para señalar los principales retos que se derivan de la disputa ideológica por la conservación de la diversidad biológica en esta región del país. El contraste entre las diversas lógicas conservacionistas permite, finalmente, la formulación de unas conclusiones inspiradas en un intento de informar el debate nacional a propósito de la importancia de privilegiar unos esfuerzos conservacionistas coherentes con la realidad social y ecológica de los territorios rurales guatemaltecos. 154 Universidad rafael landívar vicerrectoría de investigación y Proyección
Ra Ximhai, 2014
The Chemical composition ( pH , elements major and minor , % S.B., CIC , % M.O. and N.T) on soils... more The Chemical composition ( pH , elements major and minor , % S.B., CIC , % M.O. and N.T) on soils in open areas and forest fir (Abies guatemalensis Rehder ) in a successional gradient was studied. These results were related to vegetation through correlation analysis and Canonical Correspondence analysis. The aim was to show the relationships present between vegetation and soil chemistry through ecological succession in areas of cold climate. The results indicate that the vegetation is composed of 82 species of which 20 are the lower herbaceous layer, 34 the herbaceous layer of the upper, 21 shrubs and seven trees. The chemical characteristics of the soil through five successional stages have only few significant differences and not show a clear tendency to increase according to the degree of ecosystem development. A low percentage of correlations between vegetation and soil chemical characteristics are presented. The correspondence canonical analysis shows that the features that cor...
ABSTRACT "A socio-economic survey across the Guatemalan western highlands provides our f... more ABSTRACT "A socio-economic survey across the Guatemalan western highlands provides our foundation for exploring the functioning of communal management regimes in varying contexts of forest dependency. Our analysis is intended to shed light on the management rationale underlying the use of forest resources, and its relation to local livelihoods, with emphasis on land tenure and local empowerment. An in-depth survey was carried out across 12 villages in three townships where different ways of interaction among individually owned plots, communal forest and labour were found. Our assessment suggests that one villages attempt to obtain a registered land title for a communal forest area catalysed frictions with the surrounding villages, as the rest of the user groups considered it an exclusion from the commons. Their concern stemmed mainly from the widespread awareness about the importance of preserving these forest lands for ecological services such as protection against landslides in a predominantly steep landscape, and hydrological regulation; and their determination to preserve their hitherto communal land regime at a coarse scale. Furthermore, our survey indicates that the village in question was the poorest one in our sample, thereby implying an association between welfare and social cohesion. These preliminary findings add to the current debate about local livelihoods strategies in a context of common pool resources."
La mirada de la larga duracion ofrece la coherencia diacronica para un analisis teorico de las co... more La mirada de la larga duracion ofrece la coherencia diacronica para un analisis teorico de las continuidades agrarias de la realidad guatemalteca, desde una perspectiva metodologica inspirada en la ecologia politica. Se parte de los principios agrarios coloniales propuestos por Severo Martinez Pelaez y de sus equivalentes contemporaneos, en una sociedad cuya estructura agraria presenta sintomas agudos de injusticia social, deterioro medioambiental y conflictividad rural. El acaparamiento de tierras en este contexto es un fenomeno arraigado que perpetua las causas estructurales de la pobreza rural. Se evidencia, de hecho, una estructuracion de lo agrario inspirada en un ethos senorial heredado de un pasado colonial y de las practicas liberales puestas en marcha a finales del siglo XIX. Por otro lado, este trabajo rescata los instantes de humanidad benjamianos asociados a los esfuerzos contrahegemonicos encabezados por un sujeto colectivo en resistencia y, en definitiva, por una logic...
Frontiers in Human Dynamics, 2022
Authoritarian and populist regimes have used the coronavirus pandemic as another excuse to furthe... more Authoritarian and populist regimes have used the coronavirus pandemic as another excuse to further push back on democracy. Through the lens of boundary-making, we discuss power processes in pandemic politics of three countries whose governments and power constellations rely on authoritarian and/or populist politics (Hungary, Nicaragua, and
Guatemala). Our aim is to envision the conceptual and practical possibilities for breaking up the unhealthy love relationship amid pandemic politics, authoritarianism, and populism, and for ultimately dismantling all three. On the basis of secondary data, personal communications, and our lived experiences, we analyze pandemic politics in authoritarian and populist contexts, exploring their ambiguous and co-constitutive effects through three apparent contradictions. First, we discuss control, or the ways in which the framing of the pandemic by authoritarian and populist regimes as an emergency, a quasi-war situation, or an excuse for political opportunism entails an attempt to justify
command-and-control policies upon public behavior, intimate daily life, and subject classification. However, these control measures also bring about contestation through self-quarantine calls, accountability-driven demands of epidemiological data, and/or counter-narratives. Second, we engage with the contradiction of knowledge, by pointing out how authoritarian knowledge politics regarding the pandemic are based
on over-centralized decision-making processes, manipulation of epidemiological data, and the silencing of unauthorized voices. Simultaneously, these measures are challenged and resisted by counter-knowledge alternatives on pandemic data and the struggles for
subaltern forms of knowledge that could make relevant contributions to public health. Third, we discuss the contradiction of subjectivation processes. Authoritarian regimes make extraordinary efforts to draw a line between those bodies and subjects that deserve state protection and those that do not. In this situation, multiple forms of exclusion intersect
and are reinforced based on ethnic, political, national, and gender differences. The manipulation of emotions is crucial in these divisions, often creating “worthy” and “unworthy” subjects. This highlights interconnectedness among vulnerabilities and emphasizes how care and solidarity are important elements in defying authoritarian populism. Finally, we conclude by proposing strategies that would allow politicalecology to support prospects of emancipation for social justice, desperately needed in a pandemic-prone foreseeable future.
Una serie de comparaciones entre los valores medios de 15 variables asociadas a la sostenibilidad... more Una serie de comparaciones entre los valores medios de 15 variables asociadas a la sostenibilidad agrícola, la seguridad alimentaria y a la resiliencia frente al cambio climático fue llevada a cabo entre 10 productores agroecológicos y 10 productores semiconvencionales en el altiplano occidental guatemalteco. Nuestros indicadores permiten una estimación preliminar y sin afanes de generalización de las condiciones específicas de los hogares investigados con base en un muestreo incidental no probabilístico. Las variables fueron sometidas a las pruebas de medias correspondientes con base en la distribución de los datos obtenidos. Estas pruebas sugieren que los niveles de integración a los mercados locales, el ingreso agrícola bruto y la diversidad de especies cultivadas son significativamente superiores en los campos de cultivo agroecológicos evaluados con respecto a sus pares semiconvencionales. Así mismo, los rendimientos de maíz son similares entre los sistemas productivos investiga...
Capital & Class
Nature-conservation practices in the Global South are fraught with uncertainty due to fragile env... more Nature-conservation practices in the Global South are fraught with uncertainty due to fragile environmental governance and conflict stemming from their subaltern position in global capitalism, given the tension between human needs and habitat integrity. This article hinges on a recent effort spear-headed by the Centre of Conservation Studies at University of San Carlos in Guatemala, to discuss how a counterhegemonic narrative offers fertile grounds for a decolonized reading of the metabolic rift. I use my notes from eight workshops held in 2018 as the empirical body for a discourse analysis where the emerging categories have been singled out and problematized in the light of ethnoecological theory and David Harvey’s moments for the transition towards a post-Capitalist society vis-à-vis a prevailing environmental regime characterized by its verticality, lack of scientific substantiation, and proclivity to privilege exchange value at the expense of widening the metabolic rift. This re...
Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems
Ra Ximhai
Se estudió la composición química (pH, elementos mayores, menores, %S.B., CIC, %M.O. y N.T.), de ... more Se estudió la composición química (pH, elementos mayores, menores, %S.B., CIC, %M.O. y N.T.), de los suelos de áreas abiertas y bosque de abeto (Abies guatemalensis Rehder) en un gradiente sucesional. Estos resultados se relacionaron con la vegetación a través de análisis de correlación y análisis Canónico de Correspondencias. El objetivo fue mostrar las relaciones presentes entre vegetación y composición química del suelo a través de la sucesión ecológica en áreas de clima frío. Los resultados indican que la vegetación está compuesta de 82 especies de las cuales 20 son del estrato herbáceo inferior, 34 del estrato herbáceo superior, 21 arbustos y siete árboles. Las características químicas del suelo a través de los cinco estadios sucesionales tienen pocas diferencias significativas y no muestran una tendencia clara al aumento de acuerdo con el grado de desarrollo del ecosistema. Se presenta un bajo porcentaje de correlaciones entre la parte vegetal y características químicas del su...
Algunas implicaciones de la concentración de la tierra para la gestión de los recursos naturales ... more Algunas implicaciones de la concentración de la tierra para la gestión de los recursos naturales y el territorio en Guatemala * Introducción La contradicción inherente a la dualidad tierra y territorio expresa la correlación de fuerzas vigente en nuestro país y el devenir histórico de las prácticas estatales orientadas al fortalecimiento de un proyecto de nación con aspiraciones occidentales inspiradas en nuestro pasado colonial y en la vocación de nuestras clases dominantes por la subordinación periférica a los centros hegemónicos. El desencuentro entre la lógica depredadora del sistema capitalista y los esfuerzos por la integración equilibrada entre sociedad y naturaleza ocurren actualmente en el marco de la apertura comercial y la globalización desequilibrada de costos y beneficios. La tierra sigue constituyendo el epicentro del debate político y, en el caso guatemalteco, sigue contribuyendo al fortalecimiento de un modelo de desarrollo profundamente concentrador y excluyente, si...
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Papers by José Pablo Prado Córdova
Guatemala). Our aim is to envision the conceptual and practical possibilities for breaking up the unhealthy love relationship amid pandemic politics, authoritarianism, and populism, and for ultimately dismantling all three. On the basis of secondary data, personal communications, and our lived experiences, we analyze pandemic politics in authoritarian and populist contexts, exploring their ambiguous and co-constitutive effects through three apparent contradictions. First, we discuss control, or the ways in which the framing of the pandemic by authoritarian and populist regimes as an emergency, a quasi-war situation, or an excuse for political opportunism entails an attempt to justify
command-and-control policies upon public behavior, intimate daily life, and subject classification. However, these control measures also bring about contestation through self-quarantine calls, accountability-driven demands of epidemiological data, and/or counter-narratives. Second, we engage with the contradiction of knowledge, by pointing out how authoritarian knowledge politics regarding the pandemic are based
on over-centralized decision-making processes, manipulation of epidemiological data, and the silencing of unauthorized voices. Simultaneously, these measures are challenged and resisted by counter-knowledge alternatives on pandemic data and the struggles for
subaltern forms of knowledge that could make relevant contributions to public health. Third, we discuss the contradiction of subjectivation processes. Authoritarian regimes make extraordinary efforts to draw a line between those bodies and subjects that deserve state protection and those that do not. In this situation, multiple forms of exclusion intersect
and are reinforced based on ethnic, political, national, and gender differences. The manipulation of emotions is crucial in these divisions, often creating “worthy” and “unworthy” subjects. This highlights interconnectedness among vulnerabilities and emphasizes how care and solidarity are important elements in defying authoritarian populism. Finally, we conclude by proposing strategies that would allow politicalecology to support prospects of emancipation for social justice, desperately needed in a pandemic-prone foreseeable future.
Guatemala). Our aim is to envision the conceptual and practical possibilities for breaking up the unhealthy love relationship amid pandemic politics, authoritarianism, and populism, and for ultimately dismantling all three. On the basis of secondary data, personal communications, and our lived experiences, we analyze pandemic politics in authoritarian and populist contexts, exploring their ambiguous and co-constitutive effects through three apparent contradictions. First, we discuss control, or the ways in which the framing of the pandemic by authoritarian and populist regimes as an emergency, a quasi-war situation, or an excuse for political opportunism entails an attempt to justify
command-and-control policies upon public behavior, intimate daily life, and subject classification. However, these control measures also bring about contestation through self-quarantine calls, accountability-driven demands of epidemiological data, and/or counter-narratives. Second, we engage with the contradiction of knowledge, by pointing out how authoritarian knowledge politics regarding the pandemic are based
on over-centralized decision-making processes, manipulation of epidemiological data, and the silencing of unauthorized voices. Simultaneously, these measures are challenged and resisted by counter-knowledge alternatives on pandemic data and the struggles for
subaltern forms of knowledge that could make relevant contributions to public health. Third, we discuss the contradiction of subjectivation processes. Authoritarian regimes make extraordinary efforts to draw a line between those bodies and subjects that deserve state protection and those that do not. In this situation, multiple forms of exclusion intersect
and are reinforced based on ethnic, political, national, and gender differences. The manipulation of emotions is crucial in these divisions, often creating “worthy” and “unworthy” subjects. This highlights interconnectedness among vulnerabilities and emphasizes how care and solidarity are important elements in defying authoritarian populism. Finally, we conclude by proposing strategies that would allow politicalecology to support prospects of emancipation for social justice, desperately needed in a pandemic-prone foreseeable future.